This is repost of an excellent write up by the Scrabble Association of Delhi NCR on scrabble resources you can use to improve your game:
Want to be a better Scrabbler? Read on!
There are three routes
to traverse towards your destination as a Scrabble champ. You can work on all
three simultaneously but if you’re a newbie, then you can start in the order
shown.
·
Word Power
·
Strategy
·
Temperament
Word Power:
Perhaps MOST critical
in learning words, is to ALSO learn their HOOKS (the letters that go at the front
(front hook) or at the back (back hooks) to make other words).
Words are learnt as
lists: Examples of word lists words that have only 2 letters, only 3 letters
(2’s and 3’s), or 4 letter words that take a Z, the most common 7 letter words
etc.
Most basic word lists:
(with hooks)
·
2 letter
words
·
3 letter
words
·
7 letter
words (top 2000)
·
8 letter
words (top 2000)
There are several
other lists that you can move on to as your word power improves:
Strategy / Game Play:
In addition to
building word power, you also need to develop “board play”. This covers aspects
like Board Vision (being able to spot the spaces where you can play bingos
etc.), Rack Balancing and Rack Leave (engineering your tiles to get the best
combination of letters for a bingo) etc.
This is best read
about in the SCRABBLE PLAYER’S HANDBOOK:
https://strataji.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/scrabblehandbook.pdf
It’s hosted on the
site: http://www.breakingthegame.net/handbook
This is a
comprehensive guide written with the collaboration of some of the best scrabble
players. It provide great insights into how to play the game with little
quizzes and examples along the way. Easy to read. Highly recommended.
You can also look at
the following sites:
·
http://www.youthscrabble.org/index.html Run by Karen Richards,
this site explains has very practical “HOW-TOs” offering tutorials on word play and scoring.
·
John
Holgate’s site (5 time Australian Champion): Offers good scrabbling tips http://scrabble.org.au/strategy/index.htm
Temperament is the hardest thing to develop. If you’re the
kind who has a live-in-the moment attitude and a positive attitude, you’re
half-way there. Developing the right temperament is best learnt from a coach.
Academies / Classes: Ideal to learn strategy and develop the Zen-like
temperament required to excel at Scrabble. While classes are typically for
beginners or those who are reasonably good but want to improve their game,
there are actually coaching sessions for expert players as well!
·
Wordaholix: Based out of Mumbai, Wordaholix offers
coaching for beginners and experts in either standard modules or customized
packages. For more details contact wordaholix@gmail.com or check out
http://www.facebook.com/wordaholix
·
Irfan
Siddiqui on-line coaching classes: Typically for a few weeks at a time, the coaching sessions are divided
into two groups: Group A: for beginners and intermediate scrabblers and Group
B: for advanced and expert scrabblers. For more details, email: mohd.irfan.s@gmail.com
or WhatsApp +973-333-455-50.
·
Swati
Gupta’s Scrabble Training Centre:
Located in Delhi, though originally a brick and mortar centre, the
pandemic has moved her online, offering customized coaching, with a lot of
interactive games, for beginners and intermediate players. Beginners will
require a minimum of 4 sessions. To know more: swati.gupta78@yahoo.co.in.
·
ISC
beginners group: Run by
Archana Aggarwal and Hema Shah, they offer coaching, tips and practice games
on-line. One-to-one coaching sessions are also offered at a nominal cost. For
more, reach out to either Archana or Hema
o
Archana: archana.aggarwal70@gmail.com
o
Hema: kssa.scrabble@gmail.com
·
Listening
to Scrabble commentary of the
matches taking place from our league matches to international tournaments. You
learn a lot about strategy and board play – and a few words along the way. I
would recommend this highly. This is the only time you can actually get into
the mind of an expert scrabbler – absolutely invaluable. Try not to miss any.
To follow the tournaments that are going on, get yourself to the nearest
administrator of a scrabble club/ group or a senior scrabbler and you can be
added to the whatsapp groups on which the schedules and links are posted.
·
An
interesting YouTube channel to watch, particularly for beginners, is
David Webb’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-8sPGr787Ep8m2JCmkw0tA
And if you want to get in that much needed practice on your own, here are some self-learning tools:
·
Zyzzyva:.
Offered by Collins https://www.collinsdictionary.com/scrabble/scrabble-tools/, Zyzzyva is an
anagramming program typically downloaded on a computer. You can learn not just
basic lists but also list of words by probability of occurrence. Provides hooks
and meanings of every word. Make sure to use the Cardbox feature to only
re-learn those words you don’t know.
·
Anagram
Quizzer: An app that allows you to learn on the go. Typically free unless you
want to use special features of the program
·
Aerolith: www.aerolith.org
Quizzes of 2- 11 words provided daily. Plus word builder puzzles. These are to
be completed within a specified time. Helps cement word knowledge. Also provides
explanations of the words – with hooks and meanings.
·
Quackle: http://people.csail.mit.edu/jasonkb/quackle/ Helps to simulate
games and look at alternative plays (for more experienced players). This site http://www.word-buff.com/free-scrabble-game.html offers an easy ‘how-to-use’ method.
·
Xerafin: xerafin.net is a website to facilitate
learning words for Scrabble or other word games. It features anagramming
practice with build-in spaced repetition as well as other mini-games, leader
boards, and live chat which make it fun to learn. Visit it at https://www.xerafin.net/
using your google or Facebook login.
Resource People for any of the Word Tools above: If you’re finding it difficult to navigate any of these, you can
contact either of the word tool experts:
·
Ishika Shivalingaiah : ishika2k@yahoo.com
·
Rajveer S Rawlin: Samuelrr@yahoo.com
You can also read
Rajveer’s blog at https://rajveersscrabble.blogspot.com
(For those who don’t know him, Rajveer was the A division runner up at the
2019 GOA WESPAC tournament.)
Practice: Actually playing the game:
In these CoVid times,
apps and the internet rule! So the two places you can find other scrabblers
are:
· ScrabbleGo:
A free app on your phone that you can play on the go. Opponents can either be
your friends or random others. There is no time limit on a move or the game.
The software doesn’t allow you to make a fake word, so you learn as you play,
especially if you experiment with words. It also has a series of other single
person games that help with speed and anagramming.
·
Classic
Words: An app for Android phones. Helps with practicing game play.
· Internet
Scrabble Club (ISC): www.isc.ro.
This is where scrabblers converge for friendly matches and tornaments. You can
select the timing of your game, the type (whether you want to play VOID – where
you can only make correct words (like ScrabbleGo) – or challenge games with
penalties for making a fake word. Explore and choose the setting that suits you.
Every player has a “handle” that may or may not indicate their names. Some of
our favourite Delhi players are Rudish (actually super polite), Armpit (not
smelly!), Zephyr 19(very pleasant indeed) and Vandanag (that’s really her!)..
Once upon a time we used to have Scrabble
meet-ups, where we would meet to play games across a board. This differs from
playing on-line in several ways:
o
You have
to tile-track: you can’t see the remaining tiles in the bag at the click of a
button. If you’ve made a mistake in tracking the tiles played, you might lose a
game!
o
Board
vision: Many top-rated players have been making two-letter phoneys on ISC,
purely because of the difference being able to see the spots on the board.
o
Timing:
You have to press a clock and watch your time: not automatic as it is on-line.
If you forget to press the clock, you will be losing time.
So while it’s good to
get on-line practice, try to play across a board too. Hopefully, we will start
our scrabble meet-ups soon.
